Ok - I was midly annoyed with the new "see more about <this show>" when paused - but there are now ADS in that space as well.
I have been very happy with TIVO - ecstatic actually - but this has just gone too far for me now. I was willing to put up with it, even though I pay for the service, but this has crossed my line. It feels like TIVO feels empowered to put ads whereever, whenever they like on my box because I buy their service.
OK - so they still aren't making money. Do they think that by abandoning thier once-elegant user interface they will turn a profit? Perhaps they need to do some GM-style downsizing and pursue a business model for a company that isn't the size of southern Europe. Believe me, someone could figure out how to run that company on about 500 employees out of an office suite in Dayton, Ohio. Tivo is going to become known as an ad-box and that officially makes me a former-fan.
Sorry Tivo, you had me there for a long time - but you've blown it. You don't improve your business by annoying your customers!

Ok - I was midly annoyed with the new "see more about <this show>" when paused - but there are now ADS in that space as well.
I have been very happy with TIVO - ecstatic actually - but this has just gone too far for me now. I was willing to put up with it, even though I pay for the service, but this has crossed my line. It feels like TIVO feels empowered to put ads whereever, whenever they like on my box because I buy their service.
OK - so they still aren't making money. Do they think that by abandoning thier once-elegant user interface they will turn a profit? Perhaps they need to do some GM-style downsizing and pursue a business model for a company that isn't the size of southern Europe. Believe me, someone could figure out how to run that company on about 500 employees out of an office suite in Dayton, Ohio. Tivo is going to become known as an ad-box and that officially makes me a former-fan.
Sorry Tivo, you had me there for a long time - but you've blown it. You don't improve your business by annoying your customers!

Des

Tivo rep Jessica Loebig told me she cares and wants to here from customers who are bothered with this and gave me her email. Tell her jloebig@tivo.com

Ok - I was midly annoyed with the new "see more about <this show>" when paused - but there are now ADS in that space as well.
I have been very happy with TIVO - ecstatic actually - but this has just gone too far for me now. I was willing to put up with it, even though I pay for the service, but this has crossed my line. It feels like TIVO feels empowered to put ads whereever, whenever they like on my box because I buy their service.
OK - so they still aren't making money. Do they think that by abandoning thier once-elegant user interface they will turn a profit? Perhaps they need to do some GM-style downsizing and pursue a business model for a company that isn't the size of southern Europe. Believe me, someone could figure out how to run that company on about 500 employees out of an office suite in Dayton, Ohio. Tivo is going to become known as an ad-box and that officially makes me a former-fan.
Sorry Tivo, you had me there for a long time - but you've blown it. You don't improve your business by annoying your customers!

Des

__________________"Wonderful things can happen when you sow seeds of mistrust in a garden of a**holes," -- Philosopher Raylan Givens

I just don't get it. I bet users like this are the same ones who call and complain/swear at/threaten their ISP's when they get spam emails.

Same simple solution applies: ignore it

Or if you want to help benefit Tivo, view an ad every once and awhile, I know I do. I for one would rather see a few ads (not really see as I've trained myself it ignore banner ads on the web as well as on the Tivo) vs paying a lot more for service.

If it bothers you so much maybe you should suggest to Tivo that they offer an Ad-free tier for their subscription that is double what you'd pay now.

Ok - I was midly annoyed with the new "see more about <this show>" when paused - but there are now ADS in that space as well.
I have been very happy with TIVO - ecstatic actually - but this has just gone too far for me now. I was willing to put up with it, even though I pay for the service, but this has crossed my line. It feels like TIVO feels empowered to put ads whereever, whenever they like on my box because I buy their service.
OK - so they still aren't making money. Do they think that by abandoning thier once-elegant user interface they will turn a profit? Perhaps they need to do some GM-style downsizing and pursue a business model for a company that isn't the size of southern Europe. Believe me, someone could figure out how to run that company on about 500 employees out of an office suite in Dayton, Ohio. Tivo is going to become known as an ad-box and that officially makes me a former-fan.
Sorry Tivo, you had me there for a long time - but you've blown it. You don't improve your business by annoying your customers!

Des

You should see how many ads a cable dvr has. There dvr has ads every where.

I believe this is the first time TiVo has made the ad the default action however. Clearly, they should just remove the "More about" and leave the ad since that is their main intention. There's no need trying to disguise it.

Moxi to the rescue.. LOL. Plus I have seen many more DVR's in development that come without the anoying ads. Seems there is money in Video Downloads, Music Downloads, Game Downloads, etc.. so much so.. that ads don't have to be plastered all over the place on these DVRs. So help really is on the way and it is just a minor waiting game at this point unless the Moxi fits your bill. Personally, I'd rather see Tivo die as a company I had fond memories for than live on as a cursed company that people say, "Oh man, you'r stuck with Tivo". I have 2 DVR's and will jump ship as soon as my contract runs out. The ads thrown in my face make me wanna puke daily.

Ads will sink Tivo.. mark my words.

__________________
I once hit, Find more about.. and got a black screen for 45 minutes.. was I supposed to read a book about it during that time? Is that how that works?

Well you are entitled to leave at any time but to get away from all ads you are going to have to quit driving, cancel any newspapers, cancel magazine subscriptions, not check email, actually not even go online, shall I go on?

While I agree that these ads are very annoying and intrusive (to me) there really is no alternative to TiVo at the moment. Most cable DVRs have limited space and lack the features I've grown accustom to with TiVo, particularly the network features. Moxi is expensive and I really dislike their UI. (I use to have a cable DVR with Moxi) And MCE PCs are expensive, power hungry and for the most part lack CableCARD support.

See this is where lack of competition hurts consumers. If there were a half dozen other options out there with similar feature sets TiVo would have to think twice about doing these kinds of things. But when their only real competition is a limited, and also ad riddled, cable DVR they pretty much have free reign to do whatever they want. I don't like it, but that's just the way it is right now.

The problem that many in this thread fail to realize is that , Tivo is a subscription service. Therefore the subscribers should have a say in whats going on, if it were free with Ads thats another story. But the people attitudes in this thread and board, show that tivo isnt going to be top dog too much longer.

__________________
"If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then without hesitation, that He exists." ~ Blaise Pascal- on God

Wow what a great idea. If something bothers you - don't try to fix it - don't try to make matters better. Ignore it. If you close your eyes, wish hard enough, and just believe in unicorns and rainbows, it might just go away!

Wow what a great idea. If something bothers you - don't try to fix it - don't try to make matters better. Ignore it. If you close your eyes, wish hard enough, and just believe in unicorns and rainbows, it might just go away!

Yes ignoring something is the same as believing in something that doesn't exist... However, I do believe in rainbows!

The worst part of all this advertising, including TiVo, is that we all pay for it. It's good if it's something you use, of course - if you're a football fan, it's good for you that every time I buy Campbell's Chunky soup, I pay part of a football player's salary, because it makes you have to pay less for the ticket/TV channel (incredibly enough, even though I bet it doesn't feel that way!) since Campbell's pay the NFL to advertise there.

Ads are a way to rake in the big bucks by making a lot of people pay very little money lots of times. It's a system that I don't think is particularly good for actually selling products though, but I doubt anyone selling ads will want to change it - for them it's great.

I believe this is the first time TiVo has made the ad the default action however. Clearly, they should just remove the "More about" and leave the ad since that is their main intention. There's no need trying to disguise it.

+1! "More about ..." doesn't make any sense to me on the pause screen. It is not a logical placement, and it just doesn't belong there. For that reason, I actually find it more annoying than the ad.

What are examples of other home entertainment or computing devices that have advertising as part of the user interface? I can't think of any. Not my DVD player, not my VCR, not my A/V receiver, not my speakers, not the radio in any car; not Windows, not Mac OS X, not Linux.

Google searches
ebay auction searches
lots of business plans were launched to get a free internet device out there with ads
every piece of software that tries to gain control of default programs and self-update or adds a useless shortcut/system tray
logos as default screen savers
email campaigns after registering devices